Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Rally, Vringo Jumps

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.04 percent to 13,098.57 while the NASDAQ rose 0.44 percent to 2,985.28. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.13 percent to 1,416.06. Top Headline In acquisition news Monday morning, Stifel Financial SF announced it would be acquiring Keefe Bruyette & Woods for $17.50 per share, sending shares of Stifel up a little under two percent following the market opening. Equities Trading UP Nam Tai Electronics NTE shot up 41.93 percent to $15.20 after the company posted an impressive earnings beat Monday morning. BioMarin Pharmaceuticals BMRN slowed its rise midway through trading, up 30.37 percent to $48.92 after the company announced its Phase 3 study of GALNS had met its primary endpoint Monday morning. Shares Vringo VRNG rallied 25.05 percent mid-way through the morning to $3.46 after rumor that the company would win its litigation with Google GOOG went around early in the day. Equities Trading DOWN Ebix EBIX fell 11.07 percent to $19.93 after Bloomberg reported that the company was being probed by the SEC late Monday morning. Radian Group RDN regained some of its losses towards the end of trading monday, still down 9.67 percent to $4.86 despite an increase in price target at Compass Point. Shares of Pharmacyclics PCYC regained some of its losses, but remained down 10.35 percent to $51.43 despite a revenue beat Monday morning. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 1.15 percent to $85.83, while gold traded up 0.48 percent to $1,682.20. Silver traded down 1.10 percent Monday to $31.15. Eurozone European markets continued to fall Monday after bad news came out of the Spanish banks and Greece prepares to once again vote on the austerity measures. In eurozone economic reports, the Spanish unemployment change was reported, coming in at 128.2 thousand, above the expected 90.5 thousand and the previous figure of 79.60 thousand. Economics In economic news, the ISM manufacturing index came in at 54.2, slightly below the expected 54.5 and the prior figure of 55.1.